Evening briefing Friday 4th July

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0:36This is the Times evening briefing for Friday the 4th of July. For the first time, French police have used knives to puncture a UK-bound migrant boat in the sea. Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed what he's called a tougher approach to small boat channel crossings. It comes ahead of a new law coming in in France, giving police greater powers. The Times' Home Affairs editor Matt Dathan says it seems to be an escalation. But what was different was police officers then suddenly charged into the waters with knives and started puncturing the sides of the boats. Now we've not seen that in the waters before.

1:11We have seen it on the beaches where they would puncture the dinghies. And that led to a change in tactics by the smugglers about 18 months ago. Former Arsenal footballer Thomas Partey has been charged with raping two women and sexually assaulting another. The Ghanaian international, who's 32, is during court next month. He denies the charges against him. Jeremy Corbyn's confirmed discussions are underway about forming a new political party. He says real change is coming. It's after suspended Labour MP Zahra Sultana announced she was quitting the party to co-lead a new venture. Earlier, the Times reported Mr Corbyn was furious and bewildered about the moves.

1:46Paul Novak is General Secretary of the TUC. He told Times Radio talk of a new party is a distraction. I've seen new parties emerge before on both the left and the right. I'm not really focused on that. While the political classes might be chattering about who's in or who's not in a new grouping on the left, what I'm really interested in is how do we drive up wages? How do we improve living standards? How do we get people able to pick up the phone and get the doctor's appointment they want? The first person to be charged with encouraging self-harm under the Online Safety Act has been jailed for over nine years.

2:2023-year-old Tyler Webb tried to get a vulnerable woman to injure and then kill herself on a video call. Gareth Hill is from the Molly Rose Foundation. This is part of a growing and sinister threat where children, primarily girls and young women as well, are being coerced and groomed into self-harm and suicide acts online. And we need tech companies to really step in and infiltrate these groups and stop them from harming women and young girls before they come to harm. There are reports Donald Trump and President Zelensky have discussed escalating attacks on Ukraine as well as the supply of air defence weapons.

3:00Their phone call comes after what's thought to be the biggest aerial attack so far in the war in Ukraine. Earlier, Mr Trump said he was disappointed by his conversation with President Putin. The Reform UK leader of Kent County Council says all transgender-related books have been removed from the children's sections of its libraries. In a post on social media, Lyndon Kemkaran says it's wrong to tell children they're in the wrong body. Leader of the opposition Lib Dem Group, Anthony Hook, says the announcement should have been made to the council. You can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

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